Related Articles

On this Valentine’s Day, I write to you about the most enduring love of them all, that of money!

Money can buy happiness. It can empower us, makes us look pretty. Money can play cupid, and help us woo the one we love, but it can also play the devil and break the most lasting of relationships!

This season of love, The Great Gruhini wants to tell you a story of four couples I know who are deeply and madly in love and yet have money driving their relationship.

Unlike Barbara and Oliver Rose from the 1989 classic movie, “The War of Roses” who went to the extreme of dividing the furniture and the cutlery after their arguments, these couples don’t really believe in keeping scores. They have been following simple ground rules of managing money in their relationship, which you will enjoy reading!

Gunjan Pai and Prakash Pai, a Creative Consultant and a Seafarer, Mumbai

Divide the responsibilities and avoid conflicts

We like to keep things crystal clear. Our money responsibilities are cut out, leaving no scope for grey areas. Prakash is usually on ship, so I take care of day to day expenses of the house. His income takes care of our family’s big ticket expenses, long-term investments, equated monthly installments (EMI) etc.

As I was working before marriage, and had my own bank accounts and investments, we continue to maintain separate accounts till date. I sit down with our financial planner to decide how I will invest my money to save taxes and do the same for Prakash as he isn’t usually around. This mutual understanding surprises lot of people but that’s the way we like it.

About Rachna Monga Koppikar

Rachna aka your Great Gruhini is a finance writer with over a decade's experience in writing about personal finance matters with leading financial publications of India. As she studies to be a certified financial planner, she is also on a mission to make every woman a money savvy individual.
So shed your inhibitions. Get over your money worries with The Great Gruhini. Write to her at thegreatgruhini@gmail.com